Hello, everyone! In case some of you don't know, I'm Wera. I started writing on Wattpad in 2017 and won the Wattys back in 2019 in the fantasy category with my story, A Celestial Requiem. Since my win, I've transitioned to indie publishing so I release my works online on my own schedule. As I know it's often hard to get feedback on your work, I'm running a Critique Roundtable once every month to exchange stories on and off Wattpad, where you can get more in-depth feedback and identify deeper issues within your story.
ABOUT CROSS-PROMOTIONS
Every Lunar New Year and Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I will run a social media campaign where we promote each other's books. I will use this time to share your stories in my subsequent newsletter. Details will become available on my message board and our profile's Discord server. I only ask that your story features an Asian and/or Pacific Islander protagonist and you are an Asian and/or Pacific Islander author.
ABOUT THE CRITIQUE ROUNDTABLES
How Does it Work?
The Critique Roundtable is an opportunity to get feedback on ongoing and/or completed stories. It should be noted that the Critique Roundtable is not a place to solely earn praise, but to dig deeper and receive constructive criticism to improve your craft as an author.
If accepted to participate in any of the sessions, you will be expected to have at least one chapter ready for review by others in the group and to be prepared to review and provide feedback on other stories. Participants are not expected to read stories containing potentially triggering content, so they may use their best judgment.
These Critique Roundtables will open once a month. A maximum of ten people may join at a time. If you participate one month, you are not expected to join again the following month. Sign-ups will refresh on the first Friday of every month.
How to Sign Up
Once a month, we will open sign-ups to those who would like to participate. Callouts will be sent in Discord by me on the first Friday of the month, when you can sign up via the Google Form (provided via Discord).
You will receive a confirmation ping on Monday.
Your feedback will be solicited three weeks from that Monday to discuss.
Example - March 2024
March 1st - Session #1 Signups Open
March 4th - Session #1 Confirmations
March 25th - Session #1 Critique Roundtable
Guidelines
If you ever have any questions or need an extension, please don't hesitate to reach out to me on Discord. My DMs are always open!
Before Signing Up For The Critique Roundtable, Please Ensure You Review The Following Rules. It's important to understand the expectations of the critique before you commit.
You may submit as many chapters at a time. The total word count of your submission should not exceed 5,000 words.
(1) Be kind, be courteous. Remember tone does not always translate well through text. Be open-minded and sensitive. While this is not the place to receive only praise, the goal of this critique roundtable is not to tear others down, but to help identify areas of improvement. When providing feedback, ask yourself these questions: How would you interpret the feedback? Is it too harsh? Is it too complex or too vague to understand?
The goal of this Critique Roundtable is to avoid vague feedback like "I enjoyed this story" or "This story was good" because it would not be useful to the author. Again, imagine if you received this feedback, would you be satisfied with it and be able to learn what needs improving?
(2) Be prepared and committed. If you sign up to participate, please understand you've made a commitment to be a part of this Critique Roundtable. If a story contains triggering content and you would prefer not to read it, you have the freedom to do so. Otherwise, you will be expected to participate and engage in meaningful conversation. This initiative is not a place to get reads or votes, but to learn other writing perspectives and help each other.
(3) We accept mature content, but your works must follow Wattpad Content Guidelines. Please keep in mind when you apply, you might end up being partnered with someone whose book is marked mature, or contains mature or triggering content. You can always ask for clarification on why a mature tag was applied, in order to make an informed decision. If a story contains triggering content and you would prefer not to read it, you have the freedom to do so, no questions asked. I won't be closely tracking who turns in a critique.
(4) We are only accepting works in English at this time. While I can provide feedback on Spanish stories if we have any Spanish speakers needing at least one set of eyes, we don't currently have capacity to accept non-English stories within the full Critique Roundtable.
(5) You can only resubmit the same chapter one time, pending substantive edits. You are not required to incorporate any feedback, but your resubmitted chapter must demonstrate you've acknowledged the feedback, whether it be incorporating some or all of the feedback.
(6) Participate as you have capacity. I will be putting call-outs for folks who would like to participate once a month. You may participate in one session and opt out of the next, but be sure to sign up via the Google Form when you have a chapter ready. The Google Form will be shared in our profile's Discord server.
You are welcome to provide a link to Wattpad or a Google Docs link. If you would like reactionary comments to your submitted content on your Google Document, please remember to hit the Share button in the top right corner and enable comments to those with the link. Comments are not required, but I've found people enjoy seeing reactionary comments to their story.
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